Statewatch News Online: UK: Statement from the women of Yarl's Wood
28 March 2012
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UK 
Statement
from the women of Yarl's Wood
19.10.2012
The text that follows is a statement
issued on Monday 15 October by the women of Yarl's Wood, a group
of detainees held at the Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre
in Bedfordshire.
"We have witnessed
on several occasions the degrading and inhumane manner that women
are being deported back to their countries in Yarl's Wood but
particularly today; we witnessed a fellow sister, Christine Nakato
from Uganda being forcefully taken naked by about 7 men out of
the Centre to be deported. Christine was naked, and had a blanket
over her body, whilst the officers were dragging her to the airport
to be deported with her head bent down permanently by the officers
for her face not to be identified by other residents.
Christine's hysterical shouting and screaming drew our attentions
to her and we cannot understand why a human being should be treated
in that form. We were informed during our meeting that Christine
had been injected by the officers to subdue her and make her
unconscious in order for the UKBA to forcefully enforce her removal
from the UK.
In the meeting held and attended by nearly 100 women in Yarl's
Wood IRC today, 15/10/2012, we all voted and made the following
demands:"
These are our demands....
We are women held against
our will in Yarl's Wood detention centre, with no charge and
no sentence. We have formed a Movement for Justice group to stand
up together and fight for our freedom and the freedom of all
women not to be detained. Between us we have faced persecution
in many forms - as lesbian, bisexual, and as straight women.
Most of us are on 'Fast Track', a procedure designed to deport
as many people as possible before they know what is really happening.
We come from, every region of Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan
and the Caribbean, and we welcome many more to join us. We are
leaders because we speak the truth about oppression wherever
it is, we are committed to fighting for our collective rights
and dignity, and to end the racist, sexist and abusive detention
system. There is no 'crime' in seeking freedom, safety and the
chance to live free. These are our demands.
1. WE DEMAND OUR FREEDOM - RELEASE US NOW! END DETENTION!
Many of us have been the
victim of rape, abuse and torture. Some of us are pregnant and
are due to give birth in detention; some are disabled or critically
ill, and some are elderly. Being locked up away from friends,
families and the support we have in our communities is a new
violation of our humanity.
2. STOP DEPORTATION!
No mass deportation on
charter flights! No removal on scheduled flights! We call on
pilots' associations, staff unions and passengers not to assist
in or condone the forcible removal of women, or any person, to
a future of abuse, persecution and even death, or being torn
from their families. People have died in the process of being
deported; no-one should stand by while this happens. Protest,
complain and boycott airlines that continue to involve themselves
in forced deportations. They have a choice to say 'No'.
3. WE DEMAND JUSTICE - END FAST TRACK!
'Fast Track' denies us
justice. We cannot receive justice when we are isolated in detention
and rushed through stressful interviews and hearings in a few
days, without preparation. This compounds the traumatic effects
of rape, torture, trafficking, forced marriage, beating, anti-gay
persecution, female genital mutilation (FGM) and the many types
of abuse that we have faced.
4. WE DEMAND THE RIGHT TO PREPARE OUR CASES - FAIR HEARINGS
NOW!
End Internet censorship! We demand uncensored access to the Internet. The UKBA blocks the Internet and denies us access to news sites, information about our countries of origin, and organisations that can help us. We must have the means to prepare our cases and print material related to our asylum and human rights claims, without censorship.
We demand the right to
choose or change our legal representatives without restriction.
Legal Aid must be expanded, stop the cuts to legal aid! We cannot
afford to pay private lawyers; justice cannot be reserved the
rich. We demand that people with outstanding appeals must not
be removed from the UK pending the outcome of their appeal or
have become appeal right exhausted.
5. EXTEND THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN SEEKING ASYLUM
Recognise the right to
asylum of women who have been victims of trafficking or violence
& abuse in the family, who are escaping forced marriage or
FGM, or protecting their daughters from FGM, and women who are
persecuted for opposing such practices. These rights and the
right to asylum of persecuted lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
& intersex (LGBTI) people must be upheld, not undermined
by the UKBA and Fast Track in the way that LGBTI asylum rights
have been. Britain publicly opposes such persecution and oppression;
the government should not be sending us back to the hands of
our oppressors.
6. RESPECT OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH, EXPRESSION & ORGANISATION
Stop monitoring our Internet
use and the work we do on computer or what we decide to print.
Stop intimidating us when we stand up for our rights and dignity.
NO RETALIATIONagainst anyone who protests, and organises to express
our views and demands, or speaks out about the treatment of detainees
- as our MFJ group is doing.
7. WE DEMAND PRIVACY AND RESPECT
Male officers must stop
barging into female detainees' rooms. No more supervision by
the UKBA (or its contractors) when we see medical doctors in
detention or go to outside health care. Officers breach of our
right to privacy and confidentiality by discussing our health
issues with other officers and fellow detainees. We are human
beings - stop treating us as mere statistics! We need proper
and qualified medical doctors and nurses to treat us and not
officers posing to us as doctors and nurses
8. STOP EXPLOITING WOMEN IN DETENTION - MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
Detainees who do cleaning and other work are paid an insulting 50p an hour. We work to buy credit for our phones or extra food at the detention centre shop. This is the exploitation we suffer in detention - but if we are outside it is illegal for us to do paid work if we have outstanding asylum applications, even when we get no financial support. We must be paid at least the national minimum wage for our work. Everyone with an outstanding application must have the unrestricted right to work.
End the £10.00 charge
for access to our medical records! Reduce the prices in the detention
centre shop to those of the outside market! Stop making detainees
pay for goods that are donated for free by charities!
9. End the poisonous & racist police-state existence under
which thousands of us now live in Britain. Stop tearing society
apart with divide-and-rule policies. Get the UKBA off our streets
and out of our communities, colleges and workplaces.
AMNESTY NOW FOR ALL ASYLUM SEEKERS & IMMIGRANTS!
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